Out With Temer! By João Pedro Stedile

On 3rd of August we saw the judiciary and media fabricated coup coming full circle in the National Congress. Thus, concluded first stage of bourgeoisie conspiracy, which had been brewing since 2014, to form a government that can be hegemonised into unloading weight of the crisis on shoulders of the working class.

The next and current stage is of expediting the process of implementing neoliberal measures such as increasing labour exploitation, reducing salaries, stimulating unemployment rates, and executing a programme of privatization and fiscal adjustment. The said measures serve big capital and finance capital only and can put the IMF to shame.

Every day we hear absurd announcements —and I say “absurd” because they go against the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CTL), the Constitution, and all social rights conquered with the struggle of the last decades.

Therefore, the satisfaction the putsches felt after their victory in the Parliament didn’t last long. The coup was legitimated neither by the public opinion nor by the people and it was even discouraged at the international level.

The illegitimate President was humiliated in the G20 meeting where the rest of the leaders didn’t even refer to him as President. He had to use such an important international opportunity as a shopping trip. Poor Temer!

From a juridical standpoint, the farce was obvious when the Senators had no courage to annul Dilma’s political rights which implied that she hadn’t committed any crime. Three days later the same Senators approved the project to legalize rewriting of financial balances and figures. But, wasn’t this the crime for which Dilma was overthrown?

The loudest response to this question was heard on the streets. On September 4th, merely a week after the coup, Sao Paulo’s streets were taken over by a massive protest rally of 100,000 young men and women shouting the slogan: “Out with Temer, Direct Elections Now and Not One Right Less”. This protest was held without any help from media which continues to serve the coupist leaders. Again on 7th September, hundreds of protests were held all over Brazil where thousands of Brazilian men and women gathered around the “Cry of the Excluded”, under the same banner. It ended with the middle class booing for 5 minutes during the opening of the Paralympics, at the Maracana Stadium.

The future of this government remains a mystery as the bourgeoisie themselves dwell in doubts. The coupist government fails to provide a sense of political unity to the conservative forces. Its neoliberal plan will not get the country out of its economic and political crisis; on the contrary they will deepen it to bring serious consequences for country’s whole population. The indications of corruptions from its members are contrary to the discourse and interests of the so called “Curitiba Republic” which is why the Advocate General of the Union was sanctioned and removed from his post. How much further media and judicial power will delay testimonies of businessmen implicating Ministers and the illegitimate President himself in the cases of bribery?

This coupist government has the potential of morphing into government in constant crisis which will eventually tear down the parties that support it, as had happened in the last years Sarney’s chaotic term (1985-1989). There is also a possibility that the bourgeoisie rectify this through an indirect mechanism in January 2017 and place in power a new deceiver who is more able and confident with such economic power.

From our viewpoint —the viewpoint of the working class— the government should last as little as possible. But in politics, the facts and the correlation of forces are not a product of mere will or desire. They are a product of the strength that each side of the class struggle has accumulated.

How long will the government remain in power? That will depend on our own ability to mobilize the working class and to take up that flag, which so far has been a silent witness, nodding, as if the political game were not its field.

In the upcoming weeks, the coupist government will speed up its offense against the rights of the working class. Every day they make announcements to curb our rights, to reform social security and to apply a policy of subordination to foreign capital, promoting privatization and the selling of lands but also giving away the Pre-Salt oil field, gas pipelines, the BR distributer, and other national sources of wealth…these measures will soon reach a greater part of the population and the working class.

Facing this situation, several sectors of the rural areas and the city have increased their mobilizations and national struggles, as is happening with rural works, peasants, bank employees, metal workers, teachers, mail workers and public servants.

In a process of greater articulation of these sectorial struggles, Unions are calling for a national strike on September 22. Major efforts will be put into guaranteeing that not only the union movement is mobilized but all movements from the Brazil’s Popular Front and People Without Fear, so that this strike paralyses production, transportation, public services, trade activities and schools. And, as some union leaders have anticipated, this will work as a rehearsal to move towards a general strike against the coupist government.

Simultaneously, in Sao Paulo and other cities, mobilizations have multiplied which usually happen on Sundays, sometimes spontaneously. They are held most of the times by the youth and social movements along with the slogan: “Out with Temer! Direct Elections Now!” as a clear proposal that the democratic order will only be restored if the people have the right to choose their own representatives in the polls; to preserve our rights and against the measures of the ongoing neoliberal plan.

The drums are heating up and the struggle will only intensify…

Let’s struggle, comrades!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick